Byron Asher & Brad Webb | "Little Bigby"

Little Bigby is the debut duo recording from New Orleans-based clarinetist and saxophonist Byron Asher (who released NUTRIA last year with e&e) and drummer Brad Webb. Born out of many years-long relationships of performing and recording together in each other’s projects as well as a 4-year long stint as next door neighbors in New Orleans’ 7th ward (resulting in countless listening sessions and wanders to the coffeeshop), Little Bigby explores their friendship through improvised composition and free improvisation confined by the technical limitations of their direct-to-cassette recording medium. 

Putting the time away from active performing during the pandemic to good use, in January 2021, Asher began experimenting with a busted 4-track cassette recorder he purchased off Craigslist for $40, recording onto blank cassette tapes found in a “free box” on the side of the street. With only three working tracks on his Tascam recorder and single direct microphone input, he and Webb began trading free improvisations back and forth, overdubbing takes on top of each other, improvising against already recorded material, and developing the tracks released here in a sort of long-form call and response.

Given the medium of the recording project, the performers felt a cassette and digital-only release was ideal. The album artwork features a photograph shot by Asher himself, depicting a container ship floating down the Mississippi River from the vantage point of the French Quarter, New Orleans.